Tolle Lege: A Christian Reading Club for Bucknell Students

Tolle Lege is Latin phrase that means “take up and read.” While in the midst of an existential crisis, the early church father Augustine of Hippo famously heard a voice chanting these words. He interpreted this command as a divine directive to pick up and to read the Bible, and the passage he turned to in the book of Romans consummated his conversion to Christianity.

This “Tolle Lege” book club represents an invitation for Bucknell students to “take up and read” classic and influential Christian books.

 Who can participate?
All Bucknell students are invited to participate. The reading club will be ecumenical – accessible, informative, and inspiring for Christians regardless of their church or denominational background. Non-Christian students who are interested in learning more about the Christian tradition are welcome.

What will the gathering entail?

For each gathering, students who wish to participate will sign up in advance and receive a copy of the book that we will discuss. By signing up, students commit to reading the book and attending the gathering.

The meeting will begin with a free dinner, followed by a facilitated discussion of the book.

When will the gatherings occur? 
The book club will meet once a month with a regular date and time TBD. The gatherings will last 1.5-2 hours.

Where will the gatherings be held?
Open Discourse Coalition (ODC) will host these events at their office in downtown Lewisburg at 239 Market Street. In addition, ODC will generously provide the financial support necessary (1) to purchase a copy of the book for each student participant, and (2) to provide dinner for all participants.

Why start a Christian reading club for Bucknell students?
Ideally, at the center of their college education, students are learning to think well in order to live well. Bucknell University’s “Mission Statement” claims: 

Bucknell educates students for a lifetime of critical thinking and strong leadership characterized by continued intellectual exploration, creativity, and imagination. A Bucknell education enables students to interact daily with faculty who exemplify a passion for learning and a dedication to teaching and scholarship … Bucknell seeks to educate our students to serve the common good and to promote justice in ways sensitive to the moral and ethical dimensions of life.

As a secular institution, Bucknell understandably does not offer students courses taught from a Christian (or any other religious) perspective. While the university seeks to serve the “common good” and to promote “justice,” Bucknell has no shared moral and ethical framework for navigating complex and contested debates concerning what these ideals entail.

This reading club invites students into the rich intellectual tradition of Christianity. They will encounter and discuss a variety of Christian viewpoints on matters of profound personal and social importance: how to know truth, how to define justice, and how to live a good life.

In my role as a professor in the Department of Religious Studies, I teach courses devoted to the secular academic study of religion. But I am also a committed Christian with a desire to help college students learn how to think well in order to live well as faithful followers of Jesus. Through this reading club, I hope, Bucknell students will learn how better to love God not only with all of their heart and soul and strength but also with all of their mind, and how better to love their neighbors as themselves (Mark 12:28-31).

 

Questions? Email Prof. Gasaway: bwg003@bucknell.edu

 

Potential Books (in alphabetical order by authors)